By Bill Hayes

Images of an era

by Beverly Roberts

Inside Looking Out: Portraits of American Bikers, the Flash Collection II is the second in an eventual three-book series that contains the priceless vintage photographs of Jim “Flash 1%er” Miteff.

As in the first book, Portraits of American Bikers in the 1960s, the photos in Inside Looking Out center on the Outlaws Motorcycle Club; but the images in both books go far beyond a single subject. The stark black and white large-format photos dissect an entire era—the era—the ’60s.

Inside Looking Out does differ from the first book in that some current photos of the OMC are included in the mix. Especially compelling are the “then and now” images of members who have given decades of their lives to the club. Those pictures alone speak much more than “a thousand words” about the strength and longevity of this brotherhood.

Compiled by Miteff’s daughter, Beverly Roberts, these photos are brilliant in their composition, their intensity—and most importantly, in the fact that they are real.